Across The Fence: Moc-chi, A Southern Cheyenne warrior

While much of history records this warrior's name as Mochi, the tribal documents of the Southern Cheyenne list the name as Moc-chi.

Moc-chi was not born to be a warrior and was not trained in the ways of a warrior as a youth in the Tse Tse Stus band of Southern Cheyenne. Born in 1841, Moc-chi was 23 years of age before ever taking the path of war against an enemy. In a culture where young boys began their training for combat at a very early age, it was not uncommon among the Cheyenne for the warrior spirit to emerge later in life. For Moc-chi, that warrior spirit emerged with a brutal vengeance on the morning of November 29, 1864. On that morning Moc-chi picked up a rifle and killed a U.S. soldier whose regiment had attacked the peaceful Cheyenne camp of Black Kettle. After the unexpected attack by U.S. soldiers and the brutal massacre of more than 150 Cheyenne men, women and children, Moc-chi vowed revenge against the whites that were boldly invading the southern plains, the homeland of the Cheyenne.

In the decade following 1864, white settlers increasingly followed the Smoky Hill River trail from the northeastern border of Kansas and Missouri, westward through northern Kansas and also southern Nebraska Territory along the Republican River and on into the southwest. During that same decade the southern herds of Great Plains buffalo were being decimated by the relentless slaughter of millions of animals. The annihilation of the native people's source of food, clothing and shelter resulted in the violent outbreak of hostilities between the Indians of the Southern Plains and the hunters, settlers and soldiers that were determined to occupy the land and remove the Indians.

This carefully planned removal would be accomplished through a series of broken treaties, forced starvation, relentless warfare and eventual confinement to government-controlled reservations.

In 1874, the hunting of buffalo on the southwestern plains came to a virtual standstill. This temporary hiatus was not due to the drastically reduced numbers of buffalo but primarily due to the increase in Native hostilities and the eminent threat of death to the small parties of white hunters.

The year 1874 saw increased hostilities among the Natives and escalated attacks of retaliation and revenge on not only buffalo hunters, but also white immigrants and vulnerable settlers. In late June of 1874 a small group of buffalo hunters and merchants gathered near the Canadian River in north central Texas near the abandoned remains of a place called Adobe Walls. The hunters left the hunting grounds of Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma Territories for better prospects in Texas and hoped to avoid the risk of Indian attacks along the Smoky Hill and Republican Rivers. Although the hunting was better, the risks proved to be greater.

In the morning light of dawn on June 27, 1874 a large war party of Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa and Arapaho attacked the makeshift settlement of Adobe Walls. The initial attack took the lives of three hunters but several Indians were killed by the deadly firepower of the hunters within the fortified walls of the adobe buildings. After sustaining significant losses the attacking Indians laid siege to the settlement for five days but finally withdrew. It is very likely that Moc-chi was present at that battle. If so, it is certain that the Cheyenne warrior was further enraged and sworn to revenge after seeing the heads of fallen comrades, hideously displayed atop spiked poles, their headless torsos' denied the sacred journey of afterlife.

Two months later, in late August of 1874, the band of Cheyenne warriors led by Chief Medicine Water, with whom Moc-chi rode, struck a deadly blow against a surveying party in the area of present day Meade County, Kansas. The survey party, under the leadership of Captain Oliver Francis Short, a Union officer in the American Civil war, was surrounded by Medicine Water's band. Though the crew appeared to have offered significant resistance, Captain Short, along with his 14-year-old son Truman and four other members of the crew were killed. Three of the six that were killed were also scalped. Another nearby survey crew discovered the bodies, laid in a row beside their wagon, and buried them beneath a solitary cottonwood tree that stood beside nearby Crooked Creek. The attack became known as the Lone Tree massacre.

Moc-chi continued to ride with Medicine Water's band of warriors and on September 10, 1874 the war party struck again on the stagecoach route along the Smoky Hill River. The John Germaine family was traveling, by wagon, from eastern Kansas in route to Colorado. They had camped along the route on the previous night and were breaking camp for the days journey when Medicine Water and his eighteen warriors struck. John Germaine and his two sons, Steven and James, were the first to fall when the Cheyenne attacked. An invalid daughter, Rebecca, was brutalized before her death and Mrs. Germaine was also brutalized by other warriors before being killed by Moc-chi. Daughters, Caroline aged 15 years and Lizzie, 10 years were taken captive by the Cheyenne and suffered extreme mistreatment until their release, nearly six-months later, in March of the following year.

Two younger daughters, 5-year old Adelaide and younger sister Lucy [Sophie?] were left alone on the prairie and found nearly six weeks later by Indian scouts who discovered them. The two little ones were liberated from Cheyenne Chief Grey Beard's camp on November 8, 1874.

In March of 1875 most of the Southern Cheyenne surrendered at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Cheyenne warrior Moc-chi and Medicine Water were among 35 Cheyenne who were singled out for incarceration and were sent by train to St. Augustine, Florida. Moc-chi, also known as Buffalo Calf Woman, wife of Medicine Water, was the only Native American woman to be sentenced and held in prison by the United States Army as a prisoner of war.

What was it that compelled Moc-chi (Buffalo Calf Woman) to take the path of war against the whites and become a brutal, vengeful warrior?

On the morning of November 29, 1864, a military force of 700 men from the Colorado Territory militia advanced on the peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho who were camped at Sand Creek, Colorado Territory. The Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped there believed that they were under the protection of the U.S. Army. The camp consisted of mostly women and children, old men and young boys to young to hunt or fight. However, Colonel John Chivington and his troops attacked, ignoring the presence of the U.S. flag flying at the center of the camp and the white flag of surrender that was raised immediately after the attack began.

Two officers of the Colorado Cavalry, Captain Silas Soule and Lt. Joseph Cramer, who commanded companies D and K, refused Chivington's order and commanded their troops to hold fire. The remaining troops, under Chivington's command attacked the camp and massacred most all of those who were camped there.

The atrocities committed by Chivington's troops are unspeakable. Mari Sandoz recorded one of the least graphic accounts of the massacre in her biography of Crazy Horse: "First the Oglalas heard only of the people killed and then they heard the names of many they knew, and of the shameful things done – men, even old ones, with their man parts cut off, women scalped in a private place and the scalps showed around in the whisky houses of the white man's town called Denver, others cut open and the babies they carried laid out beside them." In all, about 160 Indians were killed, more than three-quarters of them being women and children. Chivington lost about two dozen men, many of them killed in the crossfire from fellow soldiers.

One of the few female survivors of that massacre was Moc-chi, Buffalo Calf Woman, who witnessed all of these events and saw the women of her camp being brutalized, murdered and mutilated, children and babies slaughtered without mercy. And when soldiers came into her lodge, killed her mother and attempted to force themselves upon her, Moc-chi wrestled herself free, grabbed a weapon, killed her attackers and vowed revenge.

Buffalo Calf Woman was held prisoner at Fort Marion from 1875 until 1878, when she was released and returned to the Cheyenne reservation in Oklahoma territory. Buffalo Calf Woman died in 1881. In the tradition of the Cheyenne, Buffalo Calf Woman brought honor to her family and her tribe as a warrior who avenged the deaths of the women and children of her people. It was a time of brutal conflict. It was a time of heroic deeds and horrific misdeeds.

In 1990 Sophie Germaine's great-granddaughter, Arlene Jauken, was contacted by John Sipes. "I am the descendant of Medicine Water," Mr. Sipes began, "and Buffalo Calf Woman, who killed your great-great-grandparents."

As a result of that initial contact, on September 9, of that year, a peace ceremony was held in Russell Springs, Kansas, by the descendants of Cheyenne warriors for the offspring of the slain members of the Germaine family. It was a reaching out for the healing of wounded hearts. Before the ceremony began Mrs. Jauken confided; "My message will be about love and forgiveness."

Without these, there can be no peace.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. To contact Tim, email; [email protected]